Chameleon RC4 is out!

blackosx · January 18, 2010

Thanks for this feedback blackosx, if it does not change anything at reboot, and you dont have an alert message saying that there's a pb with your boot config, it might be because you have more than one boot config file from your boot config.
the current seek order for com.apple.plist is:

/

/E

/L/P/S

/V/EFI/E

/V/Cham/E

We should improve this and also probably permit to provide an option BootConfig key in the panel properties ...

Thanks rekursor.

I can confirm it now works

But I had to remove com.apple.Boot.plist from /L/P/S for it to happen and to be honest I don't like doing that purely for the reason that I don't want to change the default retail installation. So can I ask if you could search /L/P/S last?

Secondly about the issue I posted earlier, where I use 2 HDD's. Disk Utility, and your code, shows my SnowLeopard drive as disk1, but as I select the 2nd HDD as the default boot drive in BIOS, Chameleon sees my SnowLeopard drive as disk0.

So to boot my SnowLeopard partition I have to enter

<key>Default Partition</key>

But your code, I guess quite rightly, sets it as

<key>Default Partition</key>

which ends up booting my Macintosh partition..

Here's my screengrabs list for reference.

So is this something that can be taken into account in the code, or shall I just swap my cables over and make my SnowLeopard HDD disk0?

But well done and good work

rekursor · January 18, 2010

Thanks rekursor.
I can confirm it now works

But I had to remove com.apple.Boot.plist from /L/P/S for it to happen and to be honest I don't like doing that purely for the reason that I don't want to change the default retail installation. So can I ask if you could search /L/P/S last?

...

Disk id are swapped ...

But well done and good work

Thanks, consider the L/P/S swap to bottom done, will appear in the next beta.

Concerning the disk swapping, you should not need to swap your disk so this is not acceptable

After analysis, It comes from OSX deciding to change/ignore the disk order from the original bios override.

So I believe I am going to change my strategy by using a 'helper' in chameleon booter ...

Meanwhile, ignore the part names which thus dont point the good part.

Thanks folks for the precious feedback and listings,

A better way would be too use
osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to restart'
instead of
sudo reboot
This allows gui apps to intervene in case they need more time, have unsaved files etc.

Consider this as done ...

Thanks!

I don't have L, so can't test for it. Just SL.
Here's my diskutil list:
/dev/disk0
  #:					   TYPE NAME					SIZE	   IDENTIFIER
  0:	 FDisk_partition_scheme						*250.1 GB   disk0
  1:			   Windows_NTFS WIN_7				  250.1 GB   disk0s1
/dev/disk1
  #:					   TYPE NAME					SIZE	   IDENTIFIER
  0:	  GUID_partition_scheme						*1.0 TB	 disk1
  1:				 Apple_Free						 209.7 MB   disk1s1
  2:						EFI						 209.7 MB   disk1s2
  3:				  Apple_HFS Macalem_i7			  999.7 GB   disk1s3
/dev/disk2
  #:					   TYPE NAME					SIZE	   IDENTIFIER
  0:	  GUID_partition_scheme						*640.1 GB   disk2
  1:				  Apple_HFS EFI					 209.7 MB   disk2s1
  2:						EFI						 209.7 MB   disk2s2
  3:				  Apple_HFS Doctor_Mac			  31.8 GB	disk2s3
  4:				  Apple_HFS Time Machine			607.7 GB   disk2s4
/dev/disk3
  #:					   TYPE NAME					SIZE	   IDENTIFIER
  0:	  GUID_partition_scheme						*500.1 GB   disk3
  1:				 Apple_Free						 209.7 MB   disk3s1
  2:				 Apple_RAID						 499.8 GB   disk3s2
  3:				 Apple_Boot Boot OSX				134.2 MB   disk3s3
/dev/disk4
  #:					   TYPE NAME					SIZE	   IDENTIFIER
  0:	  GUID_partition_scheme						*1.0 TB	 disk4
  1:				 Apple_Free						 209.7 MB   disk4s1
  2:				 Apple_RAID						 999.9 GB   disk4s2
  3:				 Apple_Boot Boot OSX				134.2 MB   disk4s3
/dev/disk5
  #:					   TYPE NAME					SIZE	   IDENTIFIER
  0:				  Apple_HFS MacRAID				*499.8 GB   disk5
Now, you'll notice a few "Apple_Free" partitions where the EFI partition once was (diskXs1).

The EFI partition on disk 1 and 2 are curious and weird. This is what happens when you erase the EFI partition as "Apple_Free", and later use DU to erase the Mac OS X partition. DU will add a "EFI" partition as diskXs2. I don't consider it valid and ignore it, always using diskXs1 as the official EFI partition.

The only EFI partition that's in use as a boot partition is disk2s1, as you can see it's Apple_HFS.

...

Thanks, next versions will handle these free partitions ...

rekursor · January 19, 2010

... next versions will handle these ...

Ok, a beta 4 is available taking in account all the problems encountered,

should fix them except the problem of disk swapping that requires a helper in the boot loader,

(I'm having a look into it at the moment ... )

EDIT:

After analysis, I'm afraid there is no way to write a file right now in the hfs fs from the booter,

so unless we can write a fake smbios value and read it later in OS X (How to read these values from an osx app?),

I'm a bit stuck here, so I think I'm going to add an option in the resource plist of the panel to swap disk numbers...

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php...t&p=1388218

Thanks for your feedback.

Master Chief · January 19, 2010

...
EDIT:

After analysis, I'm afraid there is no way to write a file right now in the hfs fs from the booter,

so unless we can write a fake smbios value and read it later in OS X (How to read these values from an osx app?),

I'm a bit stuck here, so I think I'm going to add an option in the resource plist of the panel to swap disk numbers...

Thanks for your feedback.

Why not use:

/*
* Copyright © 1998-2000 Apple Computer, Inc. All rights reserved.
*
* @APPLE_OSREFERENCE_LICENSE_HEADER_START@
* 
* This file contains Original Code and/or Modifications of Original Code
* as defined in and that are subject to the Apple Public Source License
* Version 2.0 (the 'License'). You may not use this file except in
* compliance with the License. The rights granted to you under the License
* may not be used to create, or enable the creation or redistribution of,
* unlawful or unlicensed copies of an Apple operating system, or to
* circumvent, violate, or enable the circumvention or violation of, any
* terms of an Apple operating system software license agreement.
* 
* Please obtain a copy of the License at
* [url="http://www.opensource.apple.com/apsl/"]http://www.opensource.apple.com/apsl/[/url] and read it before using this file.
* 
* The Original Code and all software distributed under the License are
* distributed on an 'AS IS' basis, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER
* EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, AND APPLE HEREBY DISCLAIMS ALL SUCH WARRANTIES,
* INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
* FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, QUIET ENJOYMENT OR NON-INFRINGEMENT.
* Please see the License for the specific language governing rights and
* limitations under the License.
* 
* @APPLE_OSREFERENCE_LICENSE_HEADER_END@
*/

#ifndef _IOKIT_IONVRAMCONTROLLER_H
#define _IOKIT_IONVRAMCONTROLLER_H

#include <IOKit/IOService.h>

class IONVRAMController: public IOService
{
 OSDeclareAbstractStructors(IONVRAMController);

public:
 virtual bool start(IOService *provider);

 virtual void sync(void);

 virtual IOReturn read(IOByteCount offset, UInt8 *buffer,
		IOByteCount length) = 0;
 virtual IOReturn write(IOByteCount offset, UInt8 *buffer,
		 IOByteCount length) = 0;
};

#endif /* !_IOKIT_IONVRAMCONTROLLER_H */

Which can be found here:

/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Kernel.framework/Versions/A/Headers/IOKit/nvram

Similar interesting is:

/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Kernel.framework/Versions/A/Headers/IOKit/IONVRAM.h

I guess this is what Apple is using to select the boot drive. No?

rekursor · January 19, 2010

Why not use:

/*
* Copyright © 1998-2000 Apple Computer, Inc. All rights reserved.
*
* @APPLE_OSREFERENCE_LICENSE_HEADER_START@
* 
* This file contains Original Code and/or Modifications of Original Code
* as defined in and that are subject to the Apple Public Source License
* Version 2.0 (the 'License'). You may not use this file except in
* compliance with the License. The rights granted to you under the License
* may not be used to create, or enable the creation or redistribution of,
* unlawful or unlicensed copies of an Apple operating system, or to
* circumvent, violate, or enable the circumvention or violation of, any
* terms of an Apple operating system software license agreement.
* 
* Please obtain a copy of the License at
* [url="http://www.opensource.apple.com/apsl/"]http://www.opensource.apple.com/apsl/[/url] and read it before using this file.
* 
* The Original Code and all software distributed under the License are
* distributed on an 'AS IS' basis, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER
* EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, AND APPLE HEREBY DISCLAIMS ALL SUCH WARRANTIES,
* INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
* FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, QUIET ENJOYMENT OR NON-INFRINGEMENT.
* Please see the License for the specific language governing rights and
* limitations under the License.
* 
* @APPLE_OSREFERENCE_LICENSE_HEADER_END@
*/

#ifndef _IOKIT_IONVRAMCONTROLLER_H
#define _IOKIT_IONVRAMCONTROLLER_H

#include <IOKit/IOService.h>

class IONVRAMController: public IOService
{
 OSDeclareAbstractStructors(IONVRAMController);

public:
 virtual bool start(IOService *provider);

 virtual void sync(void);

 virtual IOReturn read(IOByteCount offset, UInt8 *buffer,
		IOByteCount length) = 0;
 virtual IOReturn write(IOByteCount offset, UInt8 *buffer,
		 IOByteCount length) = 0;
};

#endif /* !_IOKIT_IONVRAMCONTROLLER_H */

Which can be found here:

/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Kernel.framework/Versions/A/Headers/IOKit/nvram

Similar interesting is:

/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Kernel.framework/Versions/A/Headers/IOKit/IONVRAM.h

I guess this is what Apple is using to select the boot drive. No?

But we don't have NVRAM on PCs do we ?

Is there an emulation of NVRAM available in our hacks ?

Thanks, I'm coding a disk swap checkbox meanwhile, and associated prop.

Master Chief · January 19, 2010

But we don't have NVRAM on PCs do we ?
Is there an emulation of NVRAM available in our hacks ?

We do have CMOS which is our NVRAM.

rekursor · January 19, 2010

We do have CMOS which is our NVRAM.

Interesting really,

but I probably have to many parameters to store for CMOS, should investigate though.

That said,

I implemented a workaround for my panel as for today that does not need to change the booter,

and that will be my first version for now

cparm · January 19, 2010

Interesting really,
but I probably have to many parameters to store for CMOS, should investigate though.

That said,

I implemented a workaround for my panel as for today that does not need to change the booter,

and that will be my first version for now

CMOS mean ASM and it's far away from my knowledges ,

but are you sure that we can't write to a plist from the bootloader, look at the function XMLFreeTag() and FreeSymbol() in xml.c, it seems that it's what we want, no ??

rekursor · January 19, 2010

CMOS mean ASM and it's far away from my knowledges ,

but are you sure that we can't write to a plist from the bootloader, look at the function XMLFreeTag() and FreeSymbol() in xml.c, it seems that it's what we want, no ??

No

This free the mem representation of the XML tags, but do save anything to disk,

as long as we have booted, nothing is left ...

AFAIK, nothing permits to *save* a file, you can have a quick check too in the saio_internals.h file to verify this.

It is probably better this way, so that the fs to be securely loaded.

Master Chief · January 19, 2010

Interesting really, but I probably have to many parameters to store for CMOS, should investigate though.

That said, I implemented a workaround for my panel as for today that does not need to change the booter,

and that will be my first version for now

Ah ok. Misunderstanding on my side; I was thinking about storing a startup drive/partition number only. This of course requires only a single byte when done right i.e. with bit masking / shifting.

Edit: You wrote: "I'm afraid there is no way to write a file right now in the hfs fs from the booter". You cannot write to a simple plist like com.apple.Boot.plist from /boot?

lnerrrka · January 19, 2010

Why I'm getting kjernel panic with chameleon rc4 on 10.5.8. RC3 work great!

My spec are:

Nvidia 8500GT 512MB

2GB RAM

AMD Athlon 6400+

Gigabyte mcp61m61sme-s2

thanks

sw170 · January 19, 2010

Hi Rekursor, thank you for all your brilliant work

I think you deserve highest rank as our Forum Peace Negotiator (It is pleasure to read your posts)

thanks again here

Regarding your prefpane tool

I use apple software raid and my main com.apple.Boot.plist is located on /Volumes/RX0/Extra - disk(0,3) attached pic, partition is not mounted by default so I wonder if is at all possible for your preffpane app to look and find com.apple.Boot.plist there ? at the moment program reads from /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist

Regards to All

s

ps. take it as a secondary task, if at all. Give the kids time first :]

blackosx · January 19, 2010

Why I'm getting kjernel panic with chameleon rc4 on 10.5.8. RC3 work great!

Hi lnerrrka

It's probably best if you post in the thread you followed for your install.

Ok, a beta 4 is available taking in account all the problems encountered,
should fix them except the problem of disk swapping that requires a helper in the boot loader,

(I'm having a look into it at the moment ... )

Great. I will have a look this evening and report back

EDIT:

• It finds my com.apple.Boot.plist in /Volumes/Cham/Extra whilst leaving the original Apple one in /S/L/P.

• The graceful restart as suggested by DieBuche (if you used that) work's great also.

Only the disk swap issue remains for my system.

Thanks rekursor.

scrax · January 19, 2010

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php...t&p=1388218
Thanks for your feedback.

For me is working but it ask me for a password every time i change partition with the lock open.

I have also a "cosmetic" question, is it possible to make it load near the unused Apple's one? instead of the Acessories section?

Smith@@™ · January 19, 2010

The bootConfig path can in future to be change from the "user"? For example, my com.apple is in usb pen, only this is the "problem". The soft works, the pc restart and the pane don't crash

The problem is the path of bootConfig.

Hi and thanks for job

digital_dreamer · January 19, 2010

I found that I needed to remove the older version (right click) before installing the newer version. Otherwise, the beta v4 would load, but revert to v3 after relaunching SP. Maybe I was doing something wrong, but it loads correctly now.

I'll report back for more. Thanks!

MAJ

DieBuche · January 19, 2010

If my Extra Folder is on a hidden EFI partion, i still need to mount it manually before i can use the prefpane, right?

How about a preference like this:

1. User sets "/V/E is on same disk as:" eg. "SnowLeopardPartition" (for example a dropdown list)

2. The pane checks

 diskutil info Volumes/"SnowLeopardPartition"

3. Use grep the find this part: " Part Of Whole: disk1" and extract disk number( eg. 3)

4.

sudo mkdir /Volumes/EFI
sudo mount_hfs /dev/disk[b]3[/b]s1 /Volumes/EFI

5. umount part. after setting Boot.plist (maybe involve sudo fsck_hfs /dev/disk3s1 to ensure data integrity)

Do other people as well expirience that phenomenon that disk1 might be disk0 or disk2 after restart (numbers are not fixed)?

@recursor: Do u set the Default Partition (hd(X,Y)) to the numbers get get from diskutil (diskXsY). If yes this might not be the right way, because i have to set it to hd(2,2) but the partition ends up being mounted as disk0s2 (most times).

I found that I needed to remove the older version (right click) before installing the newer version. Otherwise, the beta v4 would load, but revert to v3 after relaunching SP.

Same here, weird when replacing sp should just move the old one into the trash.

rekursor · January 19, 2010

a New version (Beta5) is available,

it implements disk swap (0<-1>) for those experimenting the problem that chameleon boot loader and os x diskutil do no list the disks in the same order.

It also now features display/hiding of renamed and hidden partitions according to boot config

Yes I use diskutil list cmd to list parts, I know no other way to do that as we can't wrtie files from booter,

if anyone have a working clue about this possibility to write proplists/files please tell me.

Here's the new version that proved to work well on my 10.6 and 10.5 computers:

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php...t&p=1388218

If my Extra Folder is on a hidden EFI partion, i still need to mount it manually before i can use the prefpane, right?
How about a preference like this:

1. User sets "/V/E is on same disk as:" eg. "SnowLeopardPartition" (for example a dropdown list)

2. The pane checks
 diskutil info Volumes/"SnowLeopardPartition"
3. Use grep the find this part: " Part Of Whole: disk1" and extract disk number( eg. 3)

4.
sudo mkdir /Volumes/EFI
sudo mount_hfs /dev/disk[b]3[/b]s1 /Volumes/EFI
5. umount part. after setting Boot.plist (maybe involve sudo fsck_hfs /dev/disk3s1 to ensure data integrity)

I need to access the boot config, so yes it could be nice to add an option to force the bootconfig path,

but I'm not so keen right now of mounting a full partition 'in the back' of the user.

It should IMHO stay the responsibility of the user to choose what parts are mounted.

The new swap disk fix should help all of those experimenting disk swap problems (disk oreder is not the same at boot as in osx).

Hi Rekursor, thank you for all your brilliant work
I think you deserve highest rank as our Forum Peace Negotiator (It is pleasure to read your posts)

thanks again here

Regarding your prefpane tool

I use apple software raid and my main com.apple.Boot.plist is located on /Volumes/RX0/Extra - disk(0,3) attached pic, partition is not mounted by default so I wonder if is at all possible for your preffpane app to look and find com.apple.Boot.plist there ? at the moment program reads from /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist

Regards to All

s

ps. take it as a secondary task, if at all. Give the kids time first :]

Thanks ,

I added /Volumes/RX0/Extra so that you can test it in beta5

in next release an option will permit to override that too.

sw170 · January 19, 2010

Do other people as well expirience that phenomenon that disk1 might be disk0 or disk2 after restart (numbers are not fixed)?
@recursor: Do u set the Default Partition (hd(X,Y)) to the numbers get get from diskutil (diskXsY). If yes this might not be the right way, because i have to set it to hd(2,2) but the partition ends up being mounted as disk0s2 (most times).

This "phenomenon" drives me mad for a while now, I thought this is only raid setup issue, however currently testing setup with these extra 3 options in com.apple.boot.plist and for about 2 weeks every reboot (not verbose) gives me fixed disks order (verbose mode mashes things up again)

	<key>Default Partition</key>
<string>hd(0,3)</string>
<key>Quiet Boot</key>
<string>Yes</string>
<key>Scan Single Drive</key>
<string>Yes</string>

DieBuche · January 19, 2010

Here is how to get Chameleon listed in "System" in the PrefPane. Set CFBundleIdentifier=com.apple.preference.startupdisk . Remove original startup-pane. Double click to install.

This "phenomenon" drives me mad for a while now, I thought this is only raid setup issue, however currently testing setup with these extra 3 options in com.apple.boot.plist and for about 2 weeks every reboot (not verbose) gives me fixed disks order (verbose mode mashes things up again)

This definitely happens for non raid setups as well. Might there be a dsdt fix to set the disk number to the sata port number?

About the "Swap disk fix" for me its not 0<>1 but 0<>2. Can somebody confirm that the system partition is always disk0?

sw170 · January 19, 2010

I added /Volumes/RX0/Extra so that you can test it in beta5
in next release an option will permit to override that too.

brilliant, thank you!

Here is how to get Chameleon listed in "System" in the PrefPane. Set CFBundleIdentifier=com.apple.preference.startupdisk . Remove original startup-pane. Double click to install.

much nicer now, thanks

This definitely happens for non raid setups as well. Might there be a dsdt fix to set the disk number to the sata port number?

About the "Swap disk fix" for me its not 0<>1 but 0<>2. Can somebody confirm that the system partition is always disk0?

with options I posted I have 0 but it may change after next reboot, who knows :] Otherwise is jumping between 0,1,2,3

blackosx · January 19, 2010

a New version (Beta5) is available,
it implements disk swap (0<-1>) for those experimenting the problem that chameleon boot loader and os x diskutil do no list the disks in the same order.

It also now features display/hiding of renamed and hidden partitions according to boot config

Fantastic - Works a treat. Top job Rekursor

Smith@@™ · January 19, 2010

Rekursor, the path: bootConfig :/etc.etc.etc will can to be changed manually for those have the com.apple in a usb boot?

Thanks..

rekursor · January 19, 2010

Fantastic - Works a treat. Top job Rekursor

Thanks

A beta 6 is coming for those who have to set manually the bootConfig path

And also a new swap (0-2) fix option

And also some cosmetics ...

And I'll make a break for the day

scrax · January 19, 2010

Here is how to get Chameleon listed in "System" in the PrefPane. Set CFBundleIdentifier=com.apple.preference.startupdisk . Remove original startup-pane. Double click to install.

About the "Swap disk fix" for me its not 0<>1 but 0<>2. Can somebody confirm that the system partition is always disk0?

Tested v5 and the mod for having it in System, all working good also the swap disk function.

I've removed the original staruppanel and changed the icon to use the original one from apple.

StartupDisk.prefPane.zip

And also some cosmetics ...

Can you make it more apple like with a icon view instead of the list?

I like it also like now. just an idea.

Chameleon RC4 is out!

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